Compounds containing silicon and nitrogen and process of producing such compounds.



unITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

i CARL BOSCH ALWIN MITTASCH, E LUDWIGSHAFEN-ON-THE-BIKINI GERMANY, ASSIGNORSTO BADISCHE ANILIN & SODA FABRIK, OF LUDWIGSHAFEN-ON-THE- manna, GERMANY, A CORPORATION.

oomrounns oon'rnnime SILICON AND mrrnoenu Ann rnocnss or rnonpome SUCH j ect's, respectively,

Kc Drawing.

To rill z'tmay conce'm: I Be it known-that we, CARL Boson, Ph. D., and ALw1N MrrTAsoH,-Ph. D., chemists, subofthe King of Prussia and the King of Saxony, residing at Ludwigshafen-on-the-Bhine, Germany, have m vented new and useful'lmprovements'. in

Com-pounds Containing Silicon and Nitrogen andProc'esses of Producing pounds, of which the following is a specification. v

Our invention relates to the productionof compounds containing silicon and nitrogen,

and to mixtures of silicon nitrid with other nitrids.

It is known that silicon nitrid can be ob- -five parts of finely powdered quartz, twentyfive parts of charcoal powder, and two parts of'sodium carbonate, and heat the mixture tained by heating, in-an' electric furnace,

" silica (SiO,) with carbon in the presence of nitrogen .(see the specification of "British Letters Patent No. 12,4:71 A. D. 1895). We have now found ..that if a body containing a cornmommetal, under which term we includeametal', or a metallic com ound. such as, for'instance, a metallic oxld, or salt,

other than a noble metal or a compound thereof, be present during the reaction consequent upon heatinga mixture of silica (SiO and carbon in the presence of nitrogen gas to the practical exclusionof oxygen gas, compounds containing silicon and ni-' trogen can be producedin an ordinary furnace, while, if an electric furnace be employed, -.-the reaction proceeds much more rapidly than is the case when no such metal,-

or metallic compoundis present.

If desired, in carrying out this invention,-.

mixtures containing silica and a metallic gen can compound suchas occur in; nature can be employed. For instance, quartz containing lime,;alumma, or 11011 oxid, or silicates, or other minerals conta ning sufljcient silica,

;can be used. If coal containing metallic compounds'be employed a's'the. source of carbon, the quantity of-any further metallic compound ofthe kind indicated mayT be lessened or entirely omitted "in accordance" with the amount of metallic compoundin" thecoah -Either one metal, or metallic com-- 1pojund,"o r a mixtureof-two, or more, such odies-canbe used, midi-instead of pure nitrogen, any suitable gases cdntainin'gmitrobe employed. Should the'metal] or metallic'c ompound present be one suclif for Specification of Letters Patent. I

;nitrids with the same facility.- Such Oominstance as aluminium, titanium, chromium, QZIICOIHUIII, vanadlum, or a compound of any one of these, which is capable of yielding a nitrid, a' mixture of this nitrid with the compound containing silicon and nitrogen will generally be obtained, although all these metals and metallic compounds do not yiel .Suitabletemperatures for carrying out the reaction ofvthis application lie between 1200 and 2,000 0. I .J

The following examples will serve to illustrate further the nature of ourinvention, which, however, is not confined to these ex- ,amples. The parts are by weight.

Example 1: Mix well together. seventyfor from ten, to twelve, hours in a current of nitrogen as at a temperature of from thirteen hun red, to fourteen hundred, degreescentigrade, and allow the. mass to cool slowly in the current of nitrogen. In this example, potassium carbonate, calcium carbonate, strontium carbonate, *barium ca'rbonate, magnesium carbonate, or magnesium instead of sodlum.

oxid, can be employed carbonate. 4

Example 2: Mix well together seventy parts of quartz, five parts of iron powder,

and twenty-five parts of soot, and heat the mixture for twelve hours in a current of nitrogen gas containing a' small percentage of hydrogen gas, at a temperature teen hundred degrees centigrade. In this example, instead of-iron powder iron oxid,

of fouriron carbid,,chromium oxid, or nickel oxid, can be used.

Example 13: Heatitogethen ifor ten hours 1 in a current of. nitrogen gas, at a temperature of 'fourteenflhundred and fifty degrees, centigrade, seventy parts of pure. silica, two

partscof manganese oxid, three parts of feldspar, andgtwenty-five parts of charcoal.

Example4r'Heattogether, for one hour,

in an electric, resistance furnace, at about fifteen hundred and fifty [degrees centi- Agrade, whilepassing a current of nitrogen .gas through the furnace, seventy-two parts of quar'tz, three parts of cerium oxid, two

parts of calcium. fluorid, and twenty-threev parts of anthracite. Instead of cerium oxid Patented Mar. 4:, 1913. Application filed November 23, 1909, Serial No. 529,641.

In this example, use can be made of vanadium, molybdenum, lanthanum, beryllium, uranium, or tungsten, compounds, either as they occur in nature, or manufactux-ed, and instead of calcium fluorid, calcium chlorid, or calcium sulfate, can be used.

Example 5: Mix twgnty-six parts of charcoal with seventy-four parts *of ground 4 Rhine pebbles, containing eighty-five per cent. of silica, eight 'p'er cent. of iron oxid een hundred, degrees cent-igrade.

Example 7: Heata mixture of seventy parts of finely ground granite, or fullers clay, and thirty partsofpowdered anthracite in an electric furnace in a current of nitrogen gas' for two hours at a temperature of from fifteen hundred, to sixteen hundre d,'degrees centigrade.

In-eachof the foregoing examples, the product obtained-contains silicon. nitrid,

scribing witnesses.

probably of a constitution corresponding to the formula Si N and" in those cases in which aluminium is present a corresponding quantity of aluminium nitrid (AlN) is formedand the silicon nitrid and the aluminium nitrid may exist side by side, or a complex or double nitrid may be formed.

Now what We claim is l. The process of producing compounds containing silicon and nitrogen by heating.

silica, carbon and a body containing a common metal in the presence of nitrogen gas, while practically excluding oxygen gas at a temperature between approximately 1300 C. and approximately 1800 C.

2.,The process of producing silicon nitrid and'aluminium nitrid by heating aluminium silicate with carbon in the presence of nitrogen gas, While practically excluding oxygen gas ata temperature between approximately 1300" C. and approximately 1800 C.

r 3. The new composition of matter containing silicon nitrid and aluminium nitrid. Intestimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in the CARL BOSCH.

ALWIN MITTASCH.

Witnesses:

J. ALEG. LLOYD, W. W. KLUNKLE.

presence of two sub-,. 

